Persuasive Speech: Should We Prevent Teen Suicide?

A new type of plague is upon the world. It is similar to no other disease, does not spread through ill, coughing lungs, and it will not contaminate a victim when sneezed on. It grows in thoughts and ideas of several different ages. However, that exposure has become prolonged much longer in the generation I call my own, kids thirteen to nineteen. The suicide rates of teens have skyrocketed in the last decade or so, causing countless preventable deaths, among my fellow students. If I can name off kids myself, who have come to me saying that they want to kill themselves, we have a problem. I should not have to talk my closest friend out of jumping off of their roof when they feel that they no longer feel purpose in this world at age thirteen.

Teens tend to revert to social media, which can damage their self esteem, if used improperly. They have extraordinarily high levels of stress, which can cause them anxiety, one of the biggest mental illnesses in correlation with suicide, including depression, bipolar disorders, and insomnia. If a teen has any of these problems, they are four times more likely to commit suicide. Education and parents can put massive expectations upon them, and if they fail to meet those expectations, they will feel as if they are a failure. It is the third leading cause of death kids age 5-24 and can be preventable if schools and parents were to ask young adults questions about having suicidal thoughts and education on where to go to receive help.“Do you ever feel so badly that you think about suicide?” “Do you have a plan to commit suicide or take your life?” “Have you thought about when you would do it (today, tomorrow, next week)?” “Have you thought about what method you would use?” (Kroning, Maureen; Kroning, Kayla, Teen Depression and Suicide: A Silent Crisis, Journal of Christian Nursing) These are some of the questions Journal of Christian Nursing recommends you ask, instead of being afraid to plant the idea in the kids mind. The problem is, what happens when the idea has already started to